Think of how horrific this must have been. The chosen people, living in the heart of the kingdom, David’s city, and watching the temple built by Solomon be destroyed. The Temple was supposed to be the spiritual center where one day all people of the world would come to worship in harmony. Jerusalem is sacked, the nation destroyed, the temple burnt to the ground, priests and civic leaders carried away. Think of something like the United States being conquered, Washington DC being destroyed, the capital and the white house burnt, our government leaders taken into slavery AND our churches demolished and priests and bishops arrested and taken away. That is the background for the first reading today. It seemed to the Israelites as if God had abandoned his people.
And what was the prophet Baruch’s message? Standing in the rubble of Jerusalem, the prophet says, “Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; and look to the east.” Why the east? Babylon was in the east! That’s where their countrymen had been carried off to!
But Baruch says, don’t mourn. It looks dark right now. But you will see God setting the captives free, establishing justice, restoring the glory of Israel. And all nations of the world will stream to Jerusalem to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the darkest time, God had a message of hope, for his people.
And that theme of hope recurs over and over in the Old Testament: that in life’s darkest moments, when things look bleakest, we must trust that God has not abandoned us, that he will ultimately fulfill his promises to deliver us from evil.
Just about 50 years after Baruch’s prophecies, in the year 538 BC, the Babylonians fell to the Persians, and the Persian King Cyrus freed the exiles, and allowed them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
Now fast forward, five hundred years. It was the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
Again, another dark time in Israel’s history. Tiberius Caesar the successor of Caesar Augustus was a ruthless dictator—oppressive, violent, capricious. Pontinus Pilate, a name we know pretty well was Tiberius’ equally ruthless and violent local representative in Judea. Governor Pilate was only too willing to crucify Jews by the thousands; he raised the Roman insignia in the Temple, which was blasphemous. Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother, were fearsome, hateful, ruthless, and collaborators with the Roman Government.
Annas and Caiaphas the Jewish high priests, as leaders of God’s flock were supposed to be men of righteousness, but they used their religious power for political gain, and instead of conducting the worship of the Temple in righteousness according to God’s commandments, they had allowed corruption to sink into Temple life.
So at the beginning of his Gospel here, Luke calls to mind this corrupt and vicious hierarchy which governed political and religious life in the first century. And after describing the dark circumstances, Saint Luke tells us the word of God came not to these high and mighty men, but a man named John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert. The word of God came to this nobody, John, in the desert. Not a mighty ruler, but a man eating locusts in the desert.
And John’s message? God is about to act again. To all of you who are oppressed, beaten down, hoping, waiting, tired of the violence, the corruption, and the suffering:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."
A change is coming, a revolution is on its way. The destruction of the old oppressive powers is at hand. God is about to act. So, “Prepare, ye, the way of the Lord.”
How are the people to prepare? John called them to a baptism of water and repentance. A baptism of water in the river Jordan, calling to mind the passing through the waters of the Red Sea, when God led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. And a baptism also of repentance. The word he uses for repentance is metanoia, the greek word, that meant to change your mind, change your heart, change your attitude, change your behavior, so that it is in keeping with the God’s commandments. But metanoia also meant, renew your hope.
The world of Tiberius Caesar, the oppression of Pilate, the religious malaise of Annas and Caiaphas had stunted their hopes, and the chosen people had fallen into mediocrity. And John was saying, get your hearts and minds ready, because God is about to act, the in breaking of the kingdom of God in your midst.
John’s message strikes to the heart of each one of our lives, doesn’t it? The world seeks to form our way of thinking, our mind, our heart. The world doesn’t even want us using the word Christmas in public let alone allowing our faith to shape our political activity. The world seeks to raise up children ignorant of God and his commands, ignorant and hostile to the Church and the Catholic faith, and then it acts surprised when those children turn to gunning each other down in the streets. This age of growing hostility towards Christians throughout the world reminds us unfortunately of the times of the Prophet Baruch and Saint Luke.
This Tuesday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation for all Catholics, begins a Jubilee Year of Mercy, during which, rich graces are available for the transformation of our hearts and the world.
During the Year of Mercy Christians are to turn ever more to the merciful face of Christ, that we may in turn, show the face of Christ to the world. By repenting of our sins and receiving mercy in the sacrament of confession, and then going out into the world to engage in the works of mercy, Christians are to show the world that peace with God and peace with your fellow man is possible.
This Advent, and during this year of mercy, God is calling us to the metanoia preached by John the Baptist. God wants to give each of us a renewed mind, a new set of eyes, a new heart.
In the Papal Bull announcing the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis, urged Christians, “Let us not fall into humiliating indifference or a monotonous routine that prevents us from discovering what is new! Let us ward off destructive cynicism! Let us open our eyes and see the misery of the world, the wounds of our brothers and sisters who are denied their dignity, and let us recognize that we are compelled to heed their cry for help! May we reach out to them and support them so they can feel the warmth of our presence, our friendship, and our fraternity!”
Almost prophetically, just when our world seems to be in grave need of mercy, when Christians are seeming to lose hope in the transforming power of the Gospel, the Holy Father opens a door of mercy for us. What a great gift the Pope has given to the Church.
May each of us open wide the door of our hearts to Christ, this Advent, seeking him with renewed hope in daily prayer, in the sacrament of confession, in the faces of those in need of our help, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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